As I read Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, I found his ideas not only enlightening to understand my own predictable irrationality but also to think through ideas on motivation and change management for our teams.

1️⃣ Context matters – we find it hard to understand things in absolute terms so explain value in relative terms with context and understand where your team is coming from. Small change for you may not be small for them.
2️⃣ People will work more for a cause than for cash – This doesn’t mean compensation is not important. Frame your cause carefully.
3️⃣ Free influences choice – Loss aversion is real so when something is free, there is no visible loss from choosing it. Consequently, when something is free, we will irrationally select it over a better choice – find what’s free and explain the choice.
4️⃣ Moods influence our decisions – Set the stage for your team to be in a cool but motivated state when introducing a change.
5️⃣ Ownership drives commitment – when we own something, we value it more thus our loss aversion takes over because of the prospect of losing something we own. Motivate ownership.
6️⃣ Short term pains overcome long term gains – we can lose motivation quickly if the immediate outcomes are negative so celebrate the early learnings (even failures) and shine a spotlight on the small wins. Start easy, go long.